THE NATIONAL Roads Authority (NRA) has expressed concern at the lack of money available for the maintenance of national routes next year, writes DAVID LABANYI
In documents obtained from the NRA, its board states that a reduction in its funding “leaves effectively no available money in 2010 for rehabilitation, minor works, preparatory work and land acquisition to allow for new starts in 2011 and 2012”.
Maintenance work includes fixing potholes, lining and signing of roads and paying for minor layout alternations such as removing a dangerous bend.
Responding to the issues raised in the documents, NRA chief executive Fred Barry said it was “critical that we invest enough in maintenance and rehabilitation. If not there will be a high price to pay in the coming years due to the deterioration of the assets.”
The NRA has a capital budget of €1.4 billion this year and €1 billion for 2010. Almost all of this funding has been committed under contracts for new sections of the national network, with nothing left over for maintenance.
The authority has consistently stressed the importance of investing in maintenance to ensure the quality of new motorways and dual carriageways – developed at a cost of over €7.5 billion – does not diminish quickly.
Another consequence of the funding shortfall is that the Government cannot now pay directly for the next tranche of major road projects, including the N7 at Newlands Cross, the N6 Galway city outer bypass and the N11 between Arklow and Rathnew. These were supposed to be built on an exchequer-funded basis but will now be considered for development as public-private partnerships (PPPs), according to the NRA documents.
The Galway city ring road project has an estimated cost of over €317 million, and €12 million has been spent on the project to date.
The rebuilding of the Newlands Cross junction in south Dublin will see the construction of a multi-level free-flowing interchange that will lift traffic on the R113 Fonthill/Belgard Road over the N7.
Asked about investor appetite for PPP deals, given the crisis in the financial markets, Barry said the market had moved from a situation where “funders were chasing projects to projects chasing funders”.
“We are relying on the markets to improve next year for our next PPP capital programme to be competitively funded,” he said.
The relative success of London’s M25 widening scheme in attracting PPP funding suggests that there is investor interest for certain PPP projects.
Once motorways linking Dublin with Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford are completed next year, around 25 per cent of the State’s national roads will have been upgraded.
However, with the State’s capital budget facing severe pressures for the coming years, its capacity to upgrade the remaining national routes is likely to be curtailed.